Kandy to Colombo

Having said I wasn’t particularly taken with Kandy, I took an early morning stroll around the lake and the city redeemed itself. It was delightful watching the sunrise over the lake.

The group left on foot to visit the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic, known locally as Sri Dalada Maligawa. It was rather busy and the crowds included hundreds of immaculately dressed schoolgirls. It was a highly attractive complex however the main event – the tooth relic, was a bit of a disappointment as we lined up and slowly shuffled past a hatch where the tooth resides. It’s meant to be the left canine of Buddha himself. There are a few other tooth relics around, and the story goes that Buddha had 40 teeth. Also, it’s four times the length of a normal canine, and it is believed that it’s still growing. My opinion? It’s completely bonkers.

We left Kandy, stopping for a panoramic view of the city, before heading to a gem museum. Another activity for me to avoid. It was basically a sales pitch to buy overpriced gemstones. I don’t even buy underpriced gems. A waste of an hour, not just in my opinion, but the others thought so too.

Continuing our drive south, the next thrilling agenda item was a tea factory. I sporadically joined the presentation conducted by a rather disinterested young woman. At the end I had a few sips of tea, but as a non-tea drinker I had nothing to compare it to. It tasted tea-like. A few in the group bought some tea at fairly reasonable prices.

Tea was introduced to Sri Lanka by James Taylor (before he became a singer/ songwriter), in 1867. The tea industry now employs one million people in Sri Lanka.

We then had a long drive to Koggala Beach on the south coast near the city of Galle. The hotel was the best of the whole trip. They tend to do this on the last day and hope you forget the slightly shit ones. Two nights there, slap bang on the beach.

Our last outing on the trip was to see Galle Fort which is located on a piece of land jutting out from the city of Galle. It was enormous. It was one of the highlights of the trip and rather unexpected.

From the interweb – “The Galle Fort is the largest remaining fortress in Asia constructed by the European imperial powers. Also known as Dutch Fort or Ramparts of Galle, this architectural and archaeological wonder was first built in 1588 by the Portuguese and lavishly rebuilt by the Dutch during the 17th century”.

Two hours was enough to prance around, so I caught a tuktuk back to the hotel. A 30 minute ride for less than 10 quid.

The afternoon was taken up with sunbathing and having dips in the warm, but lively sea. The beach was excellent and the sand was super soft. Late afternoon I went in search of fishermen on stilts, one of the iconic images associated with Sri Lanka. I found the stilts but the fishermen were missing. The others were luckier in their stick fisherman sightings. Photo courtesy of Aaron.

Our group was interesting. The oldest was Paul at 72, who was married to Pip. The youngest was Aaron at 26. Both young and old were disciples of the “socks with sandals” fraternity. I truly thought it was a “later in life” affliction. Aaron proved me wrong.

The tour finished on Sunday and we drove north towards the airport. I was dropped off en-route and headed for a beach hotel in Colombo. Well, they said it was a beach hotel. There was a ten minute shuttle to their private beach. It was misrepresented in the blurb.

Right across the road from the hotel were train tracks. I’ve never seen train tracks so close to the sea before. The station was close by and there were a number of ramshackle dwellings the other side of the tracks. Prime location indeed. Beachside property close to the station. Ideal.

After sampling the rooftop infinity pool, I took a late afternoon tuk-tuk tour with Hisham. First up was the Lotus Tower which is the tallest building in Sri Lanka at 1150 ft.

Then some arched structure spanning the road, followed by a Hindu temple with half naked men. Certain rooms were only accessible if you had no upper clothes.

Last up was Independence Square. It was February 4th 1948 when Sri Lanka gained independence from Britain. In the late 1940’s, following WWII, Britain lost a lot. India, Nepal, and Pakistan in 1947; Burma and Sri Lanka in 1948; and we only came 12th at the London Olympics in the same year, losing out to the likes of Sweden (2nd), and Finland (4th).

I watched the sunset from the rooftop pool, which strangely, had a full garden with reasonably sized trees. On the 10th floor!

My plans for the final day in Sri Lanka were thwarted by overcast skies. I chose to walk for a couple of hours to see if I could find anything interesting. I failed. For a large city, Colombo doesn’t have a great many landmarks and monuments.

Sri Lanka done. Flying home with a two day stopover in Abu Dhabi.